The Circle
STX Entertainment | Release Date: April 28, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
21
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 27, 2017
The Circle is very much a plea for the preservation and sanctification of privacy, but it’s nicely constructed in that no one character expresses the film’s distinct point of view. Read full review
70
Screen DailyDavid D'ArcyApr 27, 2017
We’re lucky that moralists like Ponsoldt and Eggers have a sense of humor. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeApr 27, 2017
One of the things The Circle gets right on multiple occasions is that, once one has bought into a technology like this, the problems it creates are invitations not to abandon it but to seek further technological solutions. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanApr 27, 2017
You could call The Circle a dystopian thriller, yet it’s not the usual boilerplate sci-fi about grimly abstract oppressors lording it over everyone else. The movie is smarter and creepier than that. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 3, 2017
The paranoia underlined, high-lighted and foot-noted by an over-reaching satire like “The Circle” seems more reasonable by the minute. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 28, 2017
The Circle is a tonal mess: part satire, part moralistic melodrama. Some of it is broadly acted, some of it subtle, much of it overheated. It has great moments, though. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 30, 2017
The end result is a meandering story featuring shallow, unconvincing characters attempting to illustrate the evils of technology in its undermining of individual liberties. The Circle offers a lot of good bullet arguments but this is a movie not a Powerpoint presentation. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlApr 28, 2017
Ponsoldt’s film is caught between comedy and paranoid thriller. I fear he half-asses the latter. Read full review
50
The PlaylistKimber MyersApr 28, 2017
The Circle is a movie that has all the appearances of working – a solid director, great cast and impressive pedigree – but constantly throws errors. It’s a frustrating viewing experience with little surprise or delight to be found. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartApr 27, 2017
It feels like the brainchild of middle-aged guys (James Ponsoldt directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Eggers) who still think of Facebook as cutting edge. Read full review
50
The New York TimesGlenn KennyApr 27, 2017
The novel is at its most trenchantly funny when depicting the exhausting nature of virtual social life, and it’s in this area, too, that the movie gets its very few knowing laughs. But it’s plain, not much more than 15 minutes in, that without the story’s paranoid aspects you’re left with a conceptual framework that’s been lapped three times over. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleApr 27, 2017
Despite appealing features, including stars Emma Watson and Tom Hanks (who morphs his patented affability into casually sinister, Jobs-ian salesmanship), The Circle never builds up a head of steam as either dark drama, modern satire or dystopian thriller. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerApr 27, 2017
It’s hard to make a film that’s critical of digital technology without sounding like a square. It’s this uphill battle that The Circle fights for a little while, then loses about halfway through. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Apr 27, 2017
Director James Ponsoldt — who did the very good "The Spectacular Now" and "Smashed" — is great at visuals, peppering the screen with glowing tweets and comments. He overplays the comedy, though, and underplays the mystery — there's never a feeling that Mae is in real danger. Read full review
50
IndieWireEric KohnApr 27, 2017
The premise begs to provoke contentious debate around privacy laws in an age of boundless innovation, but it can’t seem to find steady footing in that dialogue, in part because it lacks a substantial means of asking the right questions. Read full review
42
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerApr 28, 2017
The Circle aims for slow-building dread, but Ponsoldt’s direction and the script are both so uncharacteristically stiff that the film’s tone never solidifies. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyApr 28, 2017
It’s a movie that desperately wants to be timely and relevant, warning us about the Brave New World threats we all face when it comes to privacy, surveillance, and freedom. But it’s so cartoony and ham-fisted it sabotages its own argument. Read full review
42
The Film StageDaniel SchindelApr 27, 2017
Like an extended episode of Black Mirror but without a dark sense of humor or bleak horror, The Circle wails about how technology is affecting society with little grace or flair. Read full review
41
The VergeTasha RobinsonApr 28, 2017
Virtually none of The Circle has any emotional or narrative impact. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisMay 3, 2017
The movie is utterly ineffectual as a techno-thriller. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 28, 2017
As the film advances its more adventurous ideas about privacy, it suddenly feels like a lecture written by a twelve-year-old. Worse, The Circle ends precisely when it’s getting interesting; you’ll wonder if the production simply ran out of money. Movies about the dangers of rampant interconnectivity are welcome in this day and age, but let’s please make them a little more courageous. Read full review
40
SlateSam AdamsApr 27, 2017
Ponsoldt—who also directed The Spectacular Now and The End of the Tour—has a great feel for intimate conversation, but he’s all thumbs when it comes to The Circle’s attempt at stylized allegory. Read full review
40
We Got This CoveredLauren Humphries-BrooksApr 27, 2017
A half-baked thriller with a strong cast and a few good ideas, The Circle lacks originality, immediacy, or basic coherence. Read full review
40
TimeStephanie ZacharekApr 27, 2017
The story condescends to Mae, and, by extension, to smart, ambitious millennials everywhere — I’m not a millennial, but I felt offended on their behalf. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeApr 27, 2017
The Circle is all foreplay, playfully prodding without providing a satisfying payoff. Read full review
40
TheWrapDan CallahanApr 26, 2017
The Circle takes a valid concern about lack of privacy in the Internet age and turns it into a hyperbolic and finally laughable melodrama. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzApr 28, 2017
Has a lot of good ideas and a few engrossing sequences, but it never quite finds a groove, or even a mode, and it ends in an abrupt, unsatisfying way. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 28, 2017
The dialogue is as subtle as a placard, the drama manages to be both cooked-up and dull, and the movie’s fear of brainwashed, tech-addicted millennials is so broad as to be unintentionally funny. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianApr 28, 2017
The film is a hokily melodramatic rise-fall-redemption story with a mostly unearned patina of greater significance. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 28, 2017
I don’t think you and I need to connect on InstaSkypeChatFaceSnapTweeterBook for you to understand I’m saying we’ve seen this movie before. It’s just usually not this smug or condescending or muddled or inconsistent. Read full review
30
ScreenCrushBritt HayesApr 29, 2017
Despite a rapidly escalating plot, The Circle lacks any momentum, a problem that’s only made worse by woefully underdeveloped characters delivering painfully earnest and stilted dialogue. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 28, 2017
It's a paranoid thriller without suspense, urgency or a single new thing to say. Read full review
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